We have spoken now at some length of the past. Whether or not we all come to agreement on history, we should at least be able to agree on some basic aspects of the present and it is to these matters that we now turn. Whether or not one believes that the Celts and their predecessors also visited and inhabited North America thousands of years ago, it should be immediately obvious from even a cursory study of ancient history that upon arriving in a new land the ancestors felt obliged to win the favour of the indwelling, feminine spirit that was the Land's personification; a spirit we call, Sovereignty. Thus, even if we assume that Columbus was the first (rather than the last, as Joyce insisted) European to set eyes on the New World, the moment Europeans set foot onshore the question of Sovereignty arises. How did they honour her and win her blessing (if at all)? And what of the colonists who became the founding fathers of these New World nations? What did they do in acknowledgement of this ancient power?
Since the author of these pages is a US citizen, we shall begin by presenting some of the faces of Sovereignty as She is remembered in the US (information from elsewhere in North America will be added as it is received). In doing so we acknowledge a debt to Nicholas Mann, whose research sparked our interest and illuminated the fact that, until now, there have been no Druid publications on this topic. All have been devoted to the Old World, despite that many of the world's Druids now live in the New World. We ask you to exonerate Mr. Mann for any errors in this work. They are all our own, and only derive their inspiration from his work.
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Sovereignty
And the True History of N America
Sovereignty
And the True History of N America
Eye of the Beholder
Whether the founders of the budding nation actually believed in the reality and power of a Sovereign Mother Goddess who is the embodiment of the Land itself, we cannot now say. What we do know is that they were sensitive to the power the image would wield at home and abroad. All Old World nations retained a memory of their bonds with such a being, whose blessing conferred protection and the right to rule. The original intent was for nine sovereign ladies to serve as symbolic guardians of important secular functions (justice, liberty, learning, etc.). At one time, representations of all nine adorned the key public buildings and squares of the nation's original capitol, Philadelphia, PA. (an image which, when taken together with the key element of the sacred geometry of Washington, DC, has peculiar resonance with the sacred numerology of our own Tradition).
The first of the nine was Lady Freedom, represented as a tribal princess (with a distinctly European face) in native dress that simultaneously evokes Celtic descriptions of Irish Druids and certain of the Amerindian tribes. She is crowned with five-pointed stars,
holds the Sword of Truth, and a shield. Her brooch is engraved with the letters "US". The staff, flag, eternal flame, and the scales of justice are also among her accoutrements. While the sword and shield make plain that we must sometimes fight to retain our freedoms, this warrior aspect is tempered by the laurel wreath binding protection to peace, and reminding us that war must never become an object in itself. The Frenchman, L'Enfant, who designed the plans for Washington, DC, was astute enough to know that the figure of Sovereignty should rest on the most important structure (the Capitol building, where the Houses of Congress meet to represent the people). There She was placed and there She still stands today.
Though it is possible that the drafters of the US Constitution and Bill of Rights attained Sovereignty's blessing in the course of secret Masonic rites, the result would seem to indicate an imperfect memory or knowledge of methods; for while the initial image of Sovereignty harmonizes with the essence of the Land and the intentions of the founders, her name does not ring as true. Perhaps it is because "Columbia" is erroneously identified with the supposed discoverer of the New World that Her name sounds so *wrong* to us. It may be that one of the services we, as Druids, might provide would be to discover the Lady's name from the Lady herself, rather than through intellectualization.
It has been said that in both the Celtic and the New World, the Mother Goddess is represented as a graceful, celestial being. If so, the names of nearby rivers might present us with clues from which to start our search. Again Nicholas Mann comes to our aid, noting that three rivers mingle to flow through Washington: the Potomac, the Anacostia, and the Shenandoah. Potomac and Anacostia mean "meeting place" and "trading center", good names for a fording of three rivers where they meet the sea. The name Shenandoah means "Daughter of the Stars" in Algonquian (a language which shares in common with Welsh 40% of its vocabulary). Nicholas also mentions that the original figure of the Goddess Columbia ("Freedom") was often portrayed with two other Ladies, "Justice" and "Concord". Might the
"Lady Freedom" (the Goddess "Columbia"); Capitol Bldg.
"Spirit of Justice";
Justice Department,
Washington DC
three rivers that feed the Potomac accord with the nation's prime representations of Sovereignty?
Two other early representations of Sovereignty are of especial interest. One of the most fascinating is the image of the Spirit of Justice which stands at the entrance to the Justice Department in Washington. Like the Mothers of Europe, the Lady is shown seated. In one hand She holds the eternal flame, while embracing a small boy with the other.
While the Lady holding the scales of justice does appear at the Justice Department, her placement over a doorway is
far less imposing and was clearly not
intended to rival the focus placed on the
Spirit of Justice, whose flame evokes the nine women of justice associated in Ireland with Brighid (though the adoption of this alternate image by the legal profession has somewhat eclipsed this intention). For those versed in the Celtic myths, the image of the Spirit of Justice can hardly fail to resonate with images of the Goddesses Briga (Brighid/Bride) and Modron (Rhiannon/Macha). The resemblance is inescapable. Like Sovereignty, the eternal flame has three aspects (truth, justice, and wisdom); we may presume, then, the Lady holds the aspect of the Flame that relates to Justice.
Although not the next, the third, and most famous of Sovereignty's three prime aspects was probably originally intended to represent "Concord", but was reformed by her French designers into the image of "Liberty" holding aloft her illuminating torch and clutching the book which represents law. Rays of light representing wisdom form Her crown, providing the second aspect of the eternal flame. Interestingly, when we examine the visages of these three Ladies, we find that Lady Freedom appears in the form of a Maiden; the Spirit of Justice appears as a Mother; and Lady Liberty appears as a mature woman. Although we might stop short of using the
"Lady Law" as represented in the City Square near Philadelphia, PA
"Lady Liberty" standing on Her stone pedestal in NY harbour
word "crone", Liberty does convey the impression of the wisdom of age. The almost androgynous quality with which she has been rendered contributes substantially to this impression. And certainly it seems most appropriate to assign to the Lady's wisest aspect the role of guardian of the symbolic Gateway to Europe.
After only a short review of the images with which the founders of the new nation and federal city designer emblazoned the sites of import, it is clear that images of the Goddess
Sovereignty occur with amazing frequency. The use of sacred geometry and frequency of Mother Goddess images is especially remarkable given the founders' insistence on observing a separation of Church and State. Yet at the same time we know that the foundation stone of the Capitol building was laid with full Masonic ceremony, that Washington himself was Master of Virginia Lodge No. 39, that the Capitol was called a "temple" by nearly everyone who spoke of it at the time of its building, and that President John Adams invoked the "Supreme" deity to bless the building and the nation it was to serve. Clearly the choice to represent multiple images of Sovereignty on every major feature of the country's symbolic landscape, and to tie each in subtly with key national motifs (such as the stars representing statehood) was not the empty gesture of marketing gurus, but of men steeped in an occult tradition manifesting a ritual intention.
Names of Power
It is likely this reluctance to align the new nation with any one religion, rather than any ignorance of myth or magic, which caused the founders to avoid naming subsequent representations of Sovereignty. Even "Columbia" is not so much the Lady's name, as a title intended to reflect back to the country's supposed discoverer. Instead, each Lady is named for one of the ideals upon which the country was founded. In making this decision, the founders bind the citizens' hearts to the founding concepts; and indeed, US citizens are a nation of people who love the concepts of freedom, liberty, justice, and concord (though they love the latter as the presumed natural outcome of the former).
Of course the founders never intended for (or expected) the general citizenry to involve themselves directly in communing with or invoking Sovereignty in the manner of their ancestors. Very few Christians could be expected to accept such an idea, let alone practice it -- and the pressure to build an exclusively "Christian nation" was already being felt. Many of America's first colonists had been religious fanatics in their own lands, and had brought their religious fervour with them to the New World in the expectation of realizing their own religious visions unimpeded on new shores. If Sovereignty was to have a lasting place in the new nation, it would have to rely solely on archetypal concepts that could be justified in purely aesthetic terms. How could they have foreseen that barely two hundred years later the nation would undergo a cultural revolution that would reawaken the ancient awareness of Sovereignty in her earliest guises?
Secondary Symbols
Wherever we find personifications of the Land as "Sovereignty", we generally also find personifications of its protection, usually in the form of Her Guardians or Champions, who perform their functions according to the values of the originating culture. To the Celts, protection manifest as war bands, chieftains, and kings. In the Age of Arthur it appears in the guise of knights serving King and Land. In early Avalon, it is as hunters (nurturers), whose vigilance also defends against surprise attack. However one chooses to describe it, Guardianship always has a spiritual aspect within the structure of a culture's beliefs. In what form did the US founders envision Sovereignty's Guardians and Champions? It has been suggested by more than one academic that they are Druids.
There are strong ties between freemasonry and the Druid Revivalists, especially in the Isles, and if we are to believe the historical record the founders shared this dual interest with their own Masonic mentors. Both freemasons and Druids were as familiar with the story of Arthur as are we ourselves, and knew it as a tale centered upon the theme of Sovereignty. This theme plays out differently in each of the former Celtic lands, but there is a strong folk tradition in Scotland that the grave of Arthur is guarded by Druids who have taken the form of eagles. It is extremely unlikely that in considering the symbolism of the new nation the US founders, as Scottish Rite master masons, would have remained unaware of popular lore placing "the real Arthur" in Scotland, and connecting the themes of Arthur (the ideal "commander in chief") and Sovereignty with Druidism. The choosing of the eagle as the national bird over Benjamin Franklin's choice, the turkey, likely has its roots in this now obscure bit of history. The choice of name for many covert US defense programmes reflects this awareness, "HAARP", "ELF", and BARRD" being but a few recent examples.
In Closing
The world has changed. The founding fathers' intentions have been reshaped to serve the needs of a modern society that, apart from its religious fundamentalism, bears little resemblance to that of colonial America. The US government has long interested itself in the potential power of occult knowledge and practices. Its leaders most assuredly know and use the magical tools placed in their hands by the nation's founders; though admittedly, they do not always understand them in the same ways or use them for the same ends. Even a basic understanding of the design and construction of the capitol district reveals much about how and why the nation has evolved as it has, rather than in the way the founders intended. It is an excellent example of the extent to which non-adepts fail to realize the actual and potential consequences of altering what they do not understand.
Naturally, our deepening awareness of these issues must raise serious concerns; but it also provides us the means by which to restore balance and harmony, and it is upon this aspect that we should focus. As Druids living in the New World, we are not without the ability to influence events. It is not necessary that we take up arms in order to do so. We need only prevent events from overtaking us. There is no need to manipulate or to force anyone to act against their heart or will. Everything we need to effect and restore harmony lies already within our grasp; it remains only for us to turn our eyes from the small image projected by ego and self-interest, to that of a greater Truth. It requires only the slightest change of focus, and the willingness to extend ourselves to support one another in mutually beneficial work.
To be granted the respect and authority of Druids we must act as Druids; not only in our local Groves or larger Orders, but within the wider context of the world. It is our feeling that the first step to being able to do this is to learn how to better cooperate on matters of universal importance. We are none of us yet experts in this area; but we invite you to join us in the act of becoming.
We have spoken now at some length of the past. Whether or not we all come to agreement on history, we should at least be able to agree on some basic aspects of the present and it is to these matters that we now turn. Whether or not one believes that the Celts and their predecessors also visited and inhabited North America thousands of years ago, it should be immediately obvious from even a cursory study of ancient history that upon arriving in a new land the ancestors felt obliged to win the favour of the indwelling, feminine spirit that was the Land's personification; a spirit we call, Sovereignty. Thus, even if we assume that Columbus was the first (rather than the last, as Joyce insisted) European to set eyes on the New World, the moment Europeans set foot onshore the question of Sovereignty arises. How did they honour her and win her blessing (if at all)? And what of the colonists who became the founding fathers of these New World nations? What did they do in acknowledgement of this ancient power?
